The joy of the indian burn

So, does anyone remember giving or getting Indian burns? You know - when someone puts their hands on someone else's arm and then twists their skin in different directions? I mainly remember Indian burns as one of those activities to do on the bus on the way home from elementary school (right there with the pencil popping).

Anyway, Eli has changed the Indian burn just slightly and seems to do it almost without thinking about it. There are many versions that he has discovered, but all versions involve his feet burning my skin.

The most frequent version occurs when I am sitting on the couch watching a movie or veggie tales or wonder pets with him. He will stand right in front of me, and, for one reason or another, he seems to find joy in standing on the top of my feet and just shifting his weight back and forth, pulling my skin apart.

Today, I was sitting on the floor next to his small play table where we were coloring. I was leaning on one arm with my hand on the floor. Amy asks me a question or something and before I know it, he is standing on the back of my hand, doing the same little weight shift, pulling the skin on the back of my hand apart.

For a while I thought it was a fairly subconscious habit - I thought that he did it without thinking about it. Well, Sunday morning, he woke up early so I decided that he could watch a movie while I slept on the couch next to him. Well, he kept standing on my leg, pulling the skin apart. Finally, after waking up a few times, I decided that if I put one leg on the front edge of the couch and the other under the back cushion, there was no way that he could stand on my legs. I was awakened about 10 minutes later by an intense burning sensation on my leg under the cushion. He was laying on my leg at the front edge of the couch and had both of his feet under the back cushion, ON MY LEG, pulling my skin in opposite directions and causing me intense pain.

At this point, I laughed out loud, sat up, and decided my sleeping was finished. It is amazing the joy that I get out of this pain...he is just longing to be close to his dad. That pain is a great feeling (not that I don't flinch and tell him to stop it).

Tickles, Wiggles, and Flips

Well, I have been meaning to do some video highlights of all the fun that happens around the James house hold. Below is a video that contains tickles, wiggles, and flips that happened during Eli's first year. We really do have fun, and now with 2 kids it should be twice as fun, right? Enjoy...

I Love Lucy

Well ...

Lucy arrived at 2:46 PM today (July 12th).

She weighed in at 7 lbs 6 oz.

After looking around a bit ...

She stretched and decided it had been a hard day,

traveling down the birth canal, so ...

... she decided to treat herself to a day at the spa ...

tanning and having her hair done

She decided to finish it all out just meditating on the whole day...

Lucy is coming

Push, push ... Hold on honey while I write this blog.

Just kidding.

We got here about 5:40 this morning. At about 7:30, Amy was in the room, hooked up to her IV and receiving her Pitocin to induce labor. It is a little before 9:00 AM now. Dr. Simmons has been here and broke her water. Lucy has moved down which was the main worry before getting here.

The doctor said that he expects Lucy to arrive noon to early afternoon. He also said that he has never missed a delivery time by more than like 8 hours - haha.

Well, I will let everyone know when she arrives. Prayers are appreciated.

Canada is weird, eh?

Well, last week, I was in Canada. For some reason, I always think of Canada as the US extended north - not much different, just colder. Well, there are some differences.

I saw a joke book with a joke that went...

"How does a Canadian spell Canada?
C eh N eh D eh"

It is true, Canadians do say "eh" a lot at the end of things, ... , eh?

They also say "no worries." It is the appropriate response to just about anything that doesn't require a response.

I think it may rain today. No worries.
Excuse me. No worries.
Where's the rest room? Over there. Thanks. No worries.
Can I get the salad dressing on the side? No worries.

It really works with just about anything.

The other thing about Canada that I guess I knew, but was still a bit surprised about, is that they have longer days in the Summer. I walked out of the hotel at about 9:45 PM to get a late dinner and the sun didn't even look like it was about to go down. Sunset happened between 10:15 and 10:30 every night.

Fast food and Wal-mart both closed by 10:00 PM every night. Everything is in Kilometers and Celsius. It was weird to see 110 as the speed limit and a hot day at 25 degrees.

I am sure that there are other things that are weird to us Americans, but that is all I have for now.

Today is a Great Day!

Hello world,

Today is a great day! "Why?" you might ask. Today is a great day because 27 years ago, a blessing beyond my imagination was born. Of course, it took almost 24 years before we actually met.

Amy is the most beautiful girl in the world. She is the most amazing wife and wonderful mother of my child (soon to be children). She is compassionate and loving and a servant that really puts others before herself.

I just had to wake up this morning and tell the world how blessed I am and how they should join me in celebrating Amy's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Beautiful.
I love you!

Ramblings in Alabama

This morning I left for a business trip to Alabama. Once I got to the hotel, I was flipping through channels, trying to find something to watch on TV, and came across a debate of Democratic Presidential candidate hopefuls. Below are some questions asked, statements that were made, followed by my sarcastic remarks:

• What would you do in the first 100 days of being in office if you were elected?
  • Bring our troops home because we would like to give terrorist nations a chance to get organized and then start the war on American soil


• How would you improve the education system?
• Provide free preschools to all children because our coloring skills are not up to par


• Are you in favor of creating a mandatory time of military service after high school?
  • Not necessarily military, but one year of any kind of public service in exchange for 4 years of paid college because we want to devalue college education more by providing it for everyone; and, by the way, we have a plethora of good teachers to make this possible.


• What would you do in the first 100 days of being in office if you were elected?(Another response)
  • End the Genocide in Darfur(Great Cause) by leveraging China to use their influences by boycotting the Olympics since they are scheduled for Beijing because we want to offend, not only China, but the rest of the world that supports the Olympics.

So, after the debate, I was flipping again, and found Ocean's 11. What is great about that movie is that a man knows what he wants, knows he can have it, and takes it (the money and the girl).

What would happen if the Church (all Christians) knew what we wanted (what God wants), understood that all things are possible with God (Mark 10:27), and then made it happen.

After I watched the end of Ocean's 11, I turned off the TV and listened to this morning's message at Fellowship North. I can't help but feel that God is lighting a fire here and in many places. A paradigm shift is coming. The churches are going to become the Church, a wonderful bride of Christ (Revelation 19:7 and Revelation 21:2).

Ephesians 4:11-16 says it best:

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

The we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, the Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

How Beautiful...